The newest book written by the renowned moral philosopher Sissela Bok can be very easily assigned with the recent multitude of publications concerning happiness or well-being. Such an assignment, however, would be all too easy and would lead to the serious oversight of the book's unique merits and overall significance.

In order to convey these features properly it may be useful to divide the book into three, relatively independent, parts. (1) Firstly, one may say, there are three chapters (Luck, Experience, and The Scope of Happiness) that constitute 'the frame' in which the remaining part of the book is enclosed. These chapters contain the introduction and justification for the content of the latter as well as summaries the conclusions drawn from it. (2) At second, two chapters from the part of the book enclosed by 'the frame' (Discordant Definitions and Measurement) can be characterized as referring to the issues of methodological character. They are concerned, more specifically, with the definition(s) and measurement of happiness. (3) The remaining four chapters ('On the Happy Life', Beyond Temperament, Is Lasting Happiness Achievable? and Illusion), finally, directly address the subject matter of the book and explores 'happiness as such'.

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'The frame chapters' are especially important in that aspect that they explicitly and extensively discuss the aims of the book, which refer to the "two lacunae" in the majority of current happiness research, i.e. to "the failure to make greater use of the rich resources from literature, the arts, history, and philosophy; and the short shrift given to questions about the links between happiness and virtue or moral excellence" (p. 105). (1) The first aim, accordingly, is set as the interdisciplinary investigation of happiness from the points of view of the humanities on the one side, and natural and social sciences such as psychology, economics and neuroscience, on the other. The cautious juxtaposition of the former with the latter is pursued with the hope of gaining "a fuller, deeper understanding of the scope of happiness" (p. 3). (2) The second purpose of the book, in turn, is to refer the results of such an interdisciplinary investigation to the "perennial moral issues about how we should lead our lives and how we should treat one another" (p. 4). This includes, more specifically, the questions concerning the wisdom and moral limits proper to the pursuit of happiness, the relationship between happiness and another values, and the issue of the weighing our own happiness against that of another people. It is against these two purposes that one should assess the overall results of the investigation undertaken by Sissela Bok.

Apart from the aims of the book 'the frame chapters' provide and discus the epistemological basis on which the following exploration will be carried. This basis, as discussed in the chapter titled Experience, is experiential in nature. It is constituted by the "intricate register of feelings and experiences that the very word 'happiness' can elicit" (p. 12) and is intending as constantly reminding of "the full scope and the extraordinary variations in how people perceive and experience happiness" (p. 174). The importance of such an explicit and repeated memento is hard to be overestimated, especially in the context of the first aim set by the author. The permanent attention to the complexity and diversity of experienced happiness, in particular, organizes and serves as a test to the more systematic and scientific approaches to happiness. It helps "us appreciate what to question, where to ask for further proof, when to look especially carefully at the methodology and reasoning of the scholars and researchers" and prevent the scientific inquiry from "unreflective, one-dimensional conclusions" (p. 33).

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As soon as 'the frame chapters' of the book have been shortly scrutinized it becomes possible to turn to ones enclosed by the former. At first, the two methodological chapters will be addressed. The one titled Discordant Definitions contains a detailed and sophisticated analysis of the complexities involved in any attempt at defining happiness. In particular, the three following questions are posed: (1) 'Is happiness better defined in terms of the solely subjective experience or should it be (also) connected with some objective criteria?' (2) 'What is the time period to which the adjective 'happy' should be by default referred?' ('Is it a moment, a day, a years-long time, or maybe the whole life period?') and, finally, (3) 'What is the relationship between happiness and virtue?'.

The first and the second of these questions are relatively common in the recent happiness-related literature and as such do not add much to the specificity of Bok's book. The third question, on the other hand, seems to be quite unique and of a substantial importance. Sissela Bok, accordingly, poses a question that, when asked in our times, is both striking and significant, a question: "How can you possibly think of human happiness without referring to virtue?" (p. 46). The author reminds that happiness and virtue used to be once conceptually linked to the extent that the notion of 'a happy torturer' "would be a contradiction in terms" (p. 176). Such an intrinsic, and thus subjectively self-evident, connection as proper to the ancient virtue ethics soon disappeared and was substituted by the relationship that was other than conceptual. In particular, the notions of happiness and virtue became either completely separated (as seems to be the default position of the majority of modern happiness research) or connected on the grounds different than conceptual, as in Kant who subordinated happiness to the good will.

The second methodological chapter is titled Measurement and discusses the issue that is very important for the modern scientifically-oriented happiness study. Having the richness of happiness experience in mind, namely, Sissela Bok addresses the following questions: "What measurement could possibly encompass the depth and scope of conceptions of happiness? By what quantitative standards can one person's happiness be compared to another's? What numbers make sense in comparing even one person's different experiences from day to day or year to year? And by what indices can such personal experiences be established by outsiders?" (p. 83). While addressing these questions the author refers to the measurement procedures proposed both by philosophers and the contemporary scientists involved in the study of subjective well-being. The arguments she offers, furthermore, are based not only in an abstract reasoning but also in the results of the affective sciences such as the one suggesting that "there are distinct and independent neurological substrates for many forms of positive and negative feelings" (p. 95).

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The four chapters that constitute the remaining part of the book refer directly to the phenomenon of happiness. (1) The first of them ('On the Happy Life'), accordingly, explores philosophical and religious perspectives on happiness developed by such divergent figures as Seneca, St. Augustine, Descartes, Elizabeth of Bohemia, Pascal, and the philosophers of the Enlightenment. Such an exploration delineates the tension between this earthly accounts (e.g. Seneca) and those oriented towards the eternal life (e.g. Pascal) as well as between these of more serene character (the Stoics) and those avowedly hedonistic (de La Mettrie).

(2) The second chapter from this group (Beyond Temperament), in turn, concerns the connection between happiness and character traits. Not only does it investigate the differences that can be found along the dimension of extroversion/introversion (e.g. the tendency towards an active life and social engagement as opposed to that oriented towards more solitary and contemplative existence) but also it scrutinizes the long-standing claim that the men of genius are melancholic. Such a claim, in particular, is put into question in the light of individual counterexamples (Darwin and Sir Thomas Browne) and recent scientific results.

(3) The content of the following chapter is directly conveyed by its title: 'Is Lasting Happiness Achievable?' The author, more specifically, provides a detailed and balanced discussion of the opposing answers to this question provided by Sigmund Freud (a negative answer formulated in Civilization and Its Discontents) and Bertrand Russell (a positive answer proposed in The Conquest of Happiness). Such a discussion is in a sense twofold. (3.1) At first, the different answers are analyzed in terms of the degree to which they could have been influenced by their authors' philosophical backgrounds, personal circumstances and characters. Importantly, both the differences and the similarities (such as atheism and scientism) between the figures in questions have been expounded. (3.2.) The second part of the chapter, in turn, investigates the Freud's and Russell's views in the light of current research on happiness. Such an investigation turns out to be highly challenging not only to the Freud's pessimism about the prospects of long-lasting happiness but also to some of the convictions shared by both Freud and Russell, such as those that people are generally unhappy and that civilization seriously adds to this misery.

(4) The last of the chapters directly referring to happiness (Illusion) has been inspired by the common fact that "some should wish to single out what constitutes 'true' or 'real' happiness" (p. 155) and that the same people are often prone to acclaim those who oppose them as being under illusion. This kind of an urge, as the author emphasizes, has a very important moral aspect of "the boundary between legitimate and illegitimate inference by outsiders in what they see as people's deluded ways of living" (p. 158). With this kind of an inspiration as the background, the chapter investigates not only the ever-present, at least in philosophical and religious thinking, praise of self-knowledge but also reminds about the relatively less emphasized defense of illusion. Such a defense is, further, referred to the recent psychological research on so called positive illusions and their role for the maintenance of subjective well-being (Shelley Taylor). The author, importantly, is by herself skeptical towards any extensive praise of such self-deceit and seems to identify with the majority of contemporary philosophers who are "less sanguine than many psychologists when it comes to the benefits of illusory happiness" (p. 171). Once again, she is especially alerted to the moral consequences of any self-indulging illusions.

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The assessment of the book summarized above can be most reliably made in the context of the purposes set by the author. (1) The first aim, as one may remember, was to juxtapose the humanistic approaches to happiness with those proper to social and natural sciences. Although such an aim is not unique to the book written by Sissela Bok, it still remains the fact that it was achieved with the outstanding extensiveness of the material covered and the subtlety of arguments provided. It should be especially emphasized that the benefits from the comparison of the humanistic and scientific approaches are mutual: not only have been the "anecdotal, often erroneous intuitive claims" (p. 100) made by philosophers tested in the modern laboratory but also the conclusions drawn by modern scientists have been challenged by the insights proper to the humanities.

Apart from the very principal remarks that some aspects of experienced happiness may be "unquantifiables" (Daniel Gilbert) and that any psychological method is not a measurement of "happiness per se" (p. 100) the book very often reminds that the modern social science is build on the statistical methods and, thus, that it cannot yield any results of the universal application. These kind of techniques are based on averages and, thus, can "often conceal wide variations among individuals" (p. 175) and lead to premature conclusions such as those that "encapsulate the potential for happiness in particular traits such as optimism and gregariousness" (p. 131). Throughout her book Sissela Bok never forgets to remind that "averages and correlations are at issue, in a world of great variety when it comes to what makes people happy" (p. 152). Having said all the above, however, she stops short of all too easy anti-scientism and adds that "while no single factor contributes to subjective well-being for everyone, most do so for some people and a few factors, such as being free of profound depression or chronic pain, do so for almost all" (p. 103). Such a wise caution is a feature of an enormous value.

(2) The second explicitly stated aim of the book concerned "the moral dimensions of the pursuit of happiness" (p. 4) including the moral limits "concerning what we owe to others and to ourselves, and what we ought to do or not do in the pursuit of happiness" (p. 175). It should be emphasized that it is already the very fact of setting such a purpose that marks out the book and makes it very important. While introducing this aim, in particular, Sissela Bok reminds that "the various ideals of happiness carry fundamental moral teachings about how to live" (p. 3) and that "even the most innocuous-seeming views of happiness" are rooted in normative assumptions such as those "about who has the right to pursue happiness, who does and does not deserve happiness, and whether the happiness of some requires the exclusion or exploitation of others" (p. 4). These assumptions, importantly, are not only 'theoretical beings' but are very often embodied in the lives and acts of those sharing them.

The above theses may seem to be relatively well-established but, unfortunately, this does not make them commonly present in happiness-related literature. The author of the book mentions that many "authors offering advice on happiness leave such questions entirely out of account" and "counsel readers to cultivate positive thinking" even to the point of describing "people troubled about moral conflicts and personal responsibilities as 'neurotic' or as 'ruminators.'" (p. 121). It is in the context of such negligence that the very fact of posing the normative question may be far more important that particular results of addressing it throughout the book.

The general conclusion of the above remarks is that Exploring Happiness has achieved its purposes with the outstanding results. This does not, however, mean that one cannot find any points in which book could be improved still more. (1) The first of such points is very general and concerns the discussion of the relationship between the notions of happiness and virtue (cf. above). Sissela Bok, in particular, although having mentioned the once intrinsic and conceptual connection between the two seems to have not utilized all the possibilities hidden in the virtue ethics perspective. The urge to discuss the normative aspect of happiness is obviously evident throughout the book but it may be insufficient without founding it on the conceptual scheme in which normativity is internally embedded. Virtue ethics seems to be an excellent starting point for building such a scheme.

(2) The second remark I would like to make concerns the chapter titled Definitions. One may complain, in particular, that it contains relatively little reflection on the question of what kind of definition is sought for. The chapter titled Experience (cf. above) seems to suggest that it is a descriptive definition, i.e. the one that should be adequate to the existing linguistic practice, but such a descriptiveness in not the ultimate criterion of scientific definitions which are also discussed. The author remarks that the notion of happiness is one of highly abstract terms, for which "there are no agreed-upon rules for defining them, no established criteria for when the terms do or do not apply in particular cases" and that it "is especially likely to be redefined for ... persuasive purposes" (p. 56-57) but such remarks could have been developed further.

(3) The last issue I would like to address is relatively specific and concerns the discussion of psychological resilience, i.e. a feature that is usually considered "a strictly valuable trait" (p. 175). In the chapter titled Beyond Temperament, namely, the author investigates "a dark side" (p. 118) of this personal variable and calls for balancing it "by empathy, the capacity for fellow-feeling and compassion" (p. 119). More particularly, she claims that resilience "can operate so efficiently as to blot out awareness of anything that might trouble one's conscience, any remorse about past deeds, qualms about immoral aims for the future, or concern for the suffering of others more generally" and make people "inattentive to the needs of others" (p. 118-119).

The problem with such a relatively strong claim is that it has been based on relatively weak foundation. More specifically, the reference to William James has been made and the example given of Sir Thomas Browne whose "high-powered resilience may have [the emphasis by KB] lessened his compunction about using his medical expertise to certify that two women suspected of witchcraft were in fact witches and should be convicted, even though he rejected the 'proofs' adduced to support the belief in witchcraft and must have known that torture and death by hanging, strangling, or burning would be these women's fate" (p. 119). Is it enough to claim that "high level of resilience makes it easier to give free play to the temptation to 'see no evil, hear no evil'" (p. 119)?

There are two kinds of justification that could have been provided in support of such a strong thesis. Firstly, the author could have explicitly discuss the nature and mechanism of resilience that she has in mind and show the way in which such mechanism makes a resilient agent more prone to the insensitivity to the others. Secondly, she could have referred to the empirical research which shows that resilience is negatively correlated with empathy. Unfortunately, none of these two possibilities has been sufficiently utilized.

Having made the above critical remarks I would like to once again remind that they are directed at the book of the outstanding overall quality. I am not able to assess whether Exploring Happiness is "the most complete picture of happiness yet" (the website of the Yale University Press) but it is surely an interdisciplinary tour de force which emphasis on the normative issues connected with happiness can have a very positive influence on that part of the science of happiness which ignores any relation between happy and good life.

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